By Martin Banks - 12th December 2011
Even those who make it to Europe cannot be considered safe
Stefan Kessler
A conference in Brussels has heard that the EU "actively hinders" the arrival of refugees to Europe.
The event was told this is the result of a "deep-seated aversion" of EU countries to give forced migrants access to asylum procedures.
Member states had also "failed" to agree on comprehensive reforms to improve national asylum systems, it was said.
The conference, organized by JRS Europe, heard that this year some 2000 migrants had been killed in the Mediterranean as they tried to flee to Europe.
Stefan Kessler, JRS Europe senior policy officer and author of their new report, said, "While the ‘Arab Spring’ may have ignited the democratic aspirations of North Africans, it has revealed the deep-seated aversion of EU states to give forced migrants access to asylum procedures in Europe."
JRS is urging member states to "respond swiftly to all migrants and refugees in distress at sea and offer all those intercepted, including at land borders, access to asylum procedures."
It also wants member states to "end the practice of forcibly removing migrants to third countries where their human rights cannot be effectively protected."
Kessler told the conference, "Sixty years after the adoption of the UN Refugee Convention, European governments still find ways to justify the closure of EU borders at the expense of refugees and forced migrants."
Three refugees gave first-hand testimony of their experiences on the high seas. The conference heard that the experience of one Eritrean refugee, published in the report, is "all too familiar."
The boat on which he was fleeing was intercepted by Greek authorities, who then confiscated the engine and abandoned its occupants. He was rescued by fishermen, but detained on arrival in Greece.
More than 15,000 other people have lost their lives trying to reach safety in Europe since 1994, it was said.
Kessler added, "Even those who make it to Europe cannot be considered safe.
"The Dublin regulation, an EU law intended to determine member state responsibility for examining an asylum application, rests on the misguided assumption that asylum systems in every EU state are one and the same.
"Yet in reality there are wide variations in national asylum practices in terms of quality, access and safeguards.
"Many asylum seekers are transferred, via the Dublin regulation, to EU member states with inadequate asylum systems. At best, their pleas for protection are mishandled; at worst, totally ignored," said Kessler.
